Pages

20010202

February 2 2001 SWARTRUGGENS, NOW - Beeld newspaperreported on February 2 2001 that Swartruggens farmer Piet Potgieter, 41, was buried as a tribal member of the Silverkrans tribal authority, and his death eulogised by the chairman of the National African Farmers Union in North West, Nabot Leketi, and by Captain Mogatoa Motlatal, chief of the tribe in the North West region. Beeld journalist Nico van Burick, who attended the funeral, quoted Captain Motlatal as saying that Boer Piet Potgieter was an honourable and kind man who was considered a member of his tribe. Hundreds of tribal members attended the funeral and contributed to the funeral costs as a sign of respect. Piet Potgieter’s younger brother Kobus was also murdered on their family farm five years earlier in 1996. Piet Potgieter was killed ‘execution style’ last Friday by unknown black men with a 9mm handgun, in front of his wife Magda.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '